Cat Cora: How to Cook for Mom

Cat Cora considers herself mother to many: her four young sons, her new show, Around the World in 80 Plates (premiering this Wednesday on Bravo), and, of all things, a cruise ship. "Every ship has a godmother," she says. "Boats are typically named after women, you know." So this Mother's Day weekend, the chef (Iron Chef, specifically) will be cracking a huge bottle of champagne on the deck of Oceania Cruises' new Riviera and, for once, doing very little in the kitchen.

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Cora inherited her love of food from her parents while growing up in Mississippi, much of it Greek, thanks to her dad's ancestry ("I was working with phyllo dough when I was nine"). And she's passing that onto her own kids: "They'll eat any kind of seafood. They'll sit and eat a pile of shrimp. Our two-and-a-half-year-old will even try to eat the tail." They're not quite old enough to do the favor of making her a lavish meal in return, but she has some advice on how a man of a slightly older age can cook a fantastic meal for his mom. And how to put the kids to work, too.

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Start with breakfast in bed. Always. "Jennifer [Cora's wife] and I will trade off, so I think last year, she and the kids made me waffles and fruit — whatever they want to do. We make it about them. This year we'll have room service, so we'll all be in bed." Keep it simple, and remember that everyone loves pancakes.

Ask her what she wants. Sometimes sternly. "My mom would go, 'What does the family want?' Typical mom [laughs] — selfless to the end. I'm a big fan of sitting her down and saying, 'Mom. It's Mother's Day. It's your day. What do you want?' If she says she doesn't know, ask her some specific questions: Does she want meat or fish or chicken?"

Stick to your instincts. Even without asking, "at this point, unless you don't know your mother at all, which is just sad, you basically know what she likes, whether that's chocolate cake or something else. That's what's going to make her happiest."

If she wants healthy, keep it healthy. "If she says fish, okay, great. Go with salmon. Because who doesn't like salmon? Searing it is probably best. Grilling fish is really hard for some people. Have it deep-cleaned for you. Salt. Pepper. On the stove. Nice hot pan. Some olive oil. I always sear my fish and then pop it in the oven for a few minutes, or put a top on it. If you want it medium-rare, four or five minutes at the most."

Then again, if she wants something else... Cora's ideal meal would include "some really great lamb chops with a chimichurri sauce. Broccoli rabe. Really good grilled lemons. Maybe crispy sweet-potato fries on the side, sea salt on them, tossed with truffle oil and parmesan. A great bottle of red wine." Which is to say, not all mothers are the same. "She may say she wants a nice, big juicy steak. Whatever she wants."

Don't ignore the vegetables. "You gotta do something really nice for the salad." A Greek salad, say, or that broccoli rabe: "Blanch it in boiling water for a couple minutes. Toast some garlic in olive oil. Throw in the broccoli rabe after you've drained it. Toss, toss, toss. Salt it. Leave it alone."

Make it a group effort. "Baking is fun for kids, but my kids like to make savory stuff, too. They'll get into it. For the chimichurri, they can pick the herbs and spices." Whatever it is, guide them as they go. "They get heavy-handed with seasoning because it's fun to sprinkle stuff into food. I say, 'That's enough, that's enough.' I teach them how to season — the sprinkle-around. I'll let them chop, but with my hand, so it's not their fingers touching the food."

Dessert is the hard part. So don't go crazy, or you'll probably screw it up. "I don't have a big sweet-tooth, but I'd like a little something. I have a great chocolate budino recipe. It's an Italian pudding cake. It's so easy to make, but it's so decedent. Especially for men. It's man-proof. Actually, it's woman-proof, too."

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Cat Cora's Chocolate Budino

"Budino in Italian means pudding, but this is more like a molten cake, moist and almost gooey in the middle when served warm from the oven. I like to serve the budino with a scoop of homemade Banana Chocolate-Chunk Ice Cream (in my cookbook, Cooking from the Hip), but it's also great with creme anglaise and fresh raspberries or strawberries."

Ingredients

1/2 pound high-quality bittersweet chocolate

3 large eggs (plus 3 large yolks)

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

12 tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks, softened)

Instructions

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 F.

Grease or spray a 9-inch cake pan or 12 cup muffin tin with vegetable or canola oil. Wipe out the excess oil with a paper towel. Set aside.

Grate the chocolate or chop it into small shards with a chef's knife or a serrated knife. Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or a large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water over low heat. Melt the chocolate slowly, stirring occasionally.

In a medium bowl, gently whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and flour. Mix until all the ingredients are well-incorporated.

When the chocolate is smooth, remove the bowl from the hot water and add the butter. Stir until the butter is melted and the chocolate is smooth again. Add the egg mixture, mixing well.

Spoon the batter into the cake pan or the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup half-full. Bake for 18-20 minutes in a cake pan or 11-12 minutes in a muffin tin. The edges will have just begun to pull away from the pan, and the center should still look moist and shiny. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

While the pan is still warm, place a baking sheet over the top and invert the pan. Carefully lift the pan to release the cake. Transfer the cake to a serving platter or individual dessert plates if you've baked the cakes in a muffin tin. The budino is best served warm but is also delicious at room temperature.

Correction: the article originally stated that Cat Cora would be honored as the godmother of the Bon Appétit Culinary Center. She is actually the godmother of the entire Riviera, not just the Culinary Center.